South Korea yesterday said that a “significant portion” of leaked US intelligence documents indicating concerns in Seoul about arms supplies to Ukraine were fake.
The documents are part of a broader leak the Pentagon has described as a “very serious” national security risk. It has also created a diplomatic headache for Washington as they appear to show US spying on close allies, including South Korea and Israel.
Some files reportedly show concern among top South Korean national security officials that arms and ammunition manufactured by their country might end up being used in Ukraine — a violation of Seoul’s policy of not selling weapons to nations at war.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In a call yesterday, the South Korean minister of national defense and the US secretary of defense agreed that “a significant number of the documents in question were fabricated,” the presidential office in Seoul said in a statement.
Dozens of photographs of the documents have been circulating on social media platforms and messaging services, including Twitter, Telegram and Discord, for at least weeks.
The Pentagon has said it is working to determine if the documents are genuine, and that at least one appeared to have been manipulated. However, US officials reportedly believe many of the documents are real.
The leak has prompted US officials to reassure allies such as South Korea, which has provided non-lethal and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded last year. However, Seoul has a long-standing policy against providing weapons to countries in active conflict, which it says makes it difficult to supply arms directly to Ukraine.
The revelation of the purported Ukraine discussions among top national security officials has sparked criticism in South Korea about the vulnerability of sensitive sites, including the presidential office.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s office pushed back yesterday, saying it had “iron-clad security” and that allegations of eavesdropping were “senseless lies.”
Yoon is scheduled to travel to the US later this month on a state visit.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
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